The Beads Of Tasmer - 1894 Author:Amelia E. Barr Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. UNDERCURRENTS. " We do but guess at one another darkly 'mid the strife That thickens round us ; in this life of ours We are like players, know... more »ing not the powers Nor compass of the instruments we vex, And by our rash unskilful hands perplex To straining discords." "What talk is there of fathers, when there is such a man as Orlando ?" AFTER his conversation with his sister, Donald took his gun, and, passing through the fair wood at its narrowest part, was soon on the wild heath beyond it. He was not a keen sportsman, and this morning his solitude was more to him than game. After an hour's tramp he came suddenly in sight of a grand stag, a mighty beast with a stretch of horns like the half of a cartwheel. From his nostrils the breath was pouring like smoke, and his great yellow body glistened in the sun. Donald could see the perfect cup of three points surmounting either antler, and his bellowing filled the little corrie with its hollow angry roar. He could have shot him easily, and for a moment was inclined to do so. " For he is a ten-pointer, if not a royal," he thought, " and it would be something of a triumph to take home such a prize—a respectable introduction to Lenox and Maclane—and father would like it, I know." But he deliberately let the chance pass. " Poor fellow! Why should I slay him ? He is so eager and happy;" and with the thought the gun was lowered. The kind act put him into one of his best moods ; after it, he had no desire to kill the birds around him. The cock grouse strutted fearlessly with his mate within easy range ; and he was content to watch his bright crimson comb, and rich, brown plumage, and to smile at his lordly attentions to the plainer hen-bird. The whirring creatures did not otherwise stir him ; even the kick-ic-ic of ...« less